How We Built Our Porch Columns

We originally had old cedar columns on our porch. As part of our porch renovation project, we decided to add an apron to frame the porch ceiling and then we wrapped the cedar columns with Hardie boards. Below is a glimpse of one of the columns. Here is a before picture (also before the outdoor fireplace and old barn wood ceiling. Notice in the picture below the old columns on the far left and that there is no apron around the edge of the ceiling.

Here is another picture of the original cedar columns before we wrapped them. Here is a picture after we added the fireplace, but before the apron and wrapped the columns. We had to cut the rock 😳 to build the two columns on the house. I was trying to find an easier way, but Neal insisted this was the right way to do this. He was right! However, cutting the rock was a dusty and dirty process! 😬We also had to cut the stone around the small columns on each side of the fireplace so that these cider posts could be wrapped with Hardie plank siding to match the other white columns. Here is the other side of the fireplace where we cut the stone. After he cut the rock in both places, Neal installed a piece of treated lumber. We used this as the base to build the half-column that would be butted into the house. We built an apron using 2×4 lumber all around the perimeter of the porch ceiling. You can see in this picture where we cut the rock and installed the treated wood on the far right. Then we started covering the apron with Hardie plank siding. In the picture below, one of the columns has been trimmed out. The other column on the far left has been wrapped with Hardie plank siding but has not been trimmed out. You can really see the difference that the trim makes. This is a picture of the columns from the lakeside view after the columns have been wrapped with Hardie plank siding, but have not been trimmed out on the top, bottom and on the edges. We wrapped all the columns with Hardie plank siding pieces. We also added trim to the top and bottom of the columns and ripped thin pieces of trim to add corner pieces to each column. Neal really has an eye for trimming out things like this. The detail really gives this a beautiful look. Also in the picture below, you can see that we have finished wrapping the apron with Hardie plank siding. This picture shows the crown molding we added to the top of each column. On the top of each corner column, we added a piece of trim to help it blend with the apron above it. This picture below shows the column without the top/corner trim piece. This picture shows the top corner trim piece. Once we caulked it, it blended well and really gave the column a finished look. Here is a picture of the lake side of our house. Not all the pieces of trim have been painted in this picture. Below is a picture of all the finished columns. Here are the finished columns from another angle. Here is a close-up view after we added crown molding, caulked and painted. (It is also after we added old barn wood to the ceiling.)Here is another picture of the finished columns (after we installed old barn wood on the ceiling.) In this picture, you can also see the columns butted into both sides of the fireplace and into the house on the right. And one final picture of the finished columns . . .Neal also added electrical wire to two of the columns to add downcast light fixtures and outlets.

Samantha, Wrapping the columns took a few weekends. The entire porch project has taken about two years because we have done this in stages. Stage 1: Build fireplace Stage 2: Wrap columns Stage 3: Brickwork around the edge of the porch (blog post coming soon) and Stage 4: Tiling porch (working on this now, so stay tuned for this blog post too). Thanks for reading and commenting on our blog post. Suzanne

Hiya, I’m really glad I have found this information. Nowadays bloggers publish just about gossips and internet and this is really annoying. A good blog with interesting content, that’s what I need. Thank you for keeping this website, I will be visiting it. Do you do newsletters? Cant find it.

Hey Cari, Thanks for reading our blog! Yes, I send out a newsletter to subscribers, which contains my recent blog posts. I have not sent out one for a few weeks because we have been SOOO busy renovating a house for my mother. The good news is that we will have several renovation blog posts coming soon! Suzanne